Fallout 3 Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on November 10th, 2008

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So where is the bad? Well... it's Oblivion with the name Fallout attached to it. That isn't the worst thing in the world, but if you're going to stay true to your fanbase, you have to satisfy your fanbase. According to a lot of forums which are filled with hardcore Fallout fans, this game is just a glimpse of the original series. There are wonderful things included in this title such as the VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), which allows you to pretty much stop time, assign bullets (or whatever weapon you're armed with) to certain body parts of the enemy or their weapon they're toting. Depending on the proximity of you compared to them, the percentage of success will be displayed on each part. If their arm is clearly out of sight, for example, the percentage of hitting that arm is lower than an exposed torso. This doesn't prevent them from hurting you, but it gives you a better chance of really hurting them. It's a great option if you're not the best sharp-shooter.

The game has an absorbing start, where you begin your life as a child, in one of the Vaults set up to provide protection from the nuclear war. This start provides the player with a chance to get used to the controls and interface, although for those who have played Oblivion or Morrowind, the controls and interface will be highly familiar. Fortunately, no knowledge of previous Fallout games is assumed, meaning you don't have to travel years back in gaming history just to understand the plot. It is in the beginning of the game that you decide on your character's appearance, skills and attributes, as would be expected. However, and this is what is meant by improved, unlike most RPG's seen recently, Fallout 3 prompts you to 'design' your character subtly, through clever design, rather than Oblivion, which shoves these decisions into your face before you've even had a chance to move.

With all that said I'm not going to get caught up in the technical issues with the game. No, I have conceptual issues to address. First: The setting is bleak. Life is all-but-gone, color has faded from the world and it requires leaps of imagination to see anything worth saving or protecting.

Every step in Fallout 3 is another step into someplace I do not want to be. If you were able to navigate the city streets you could at least get the morbid satisfaction of seeing actual locations destroyed. Sure you can use the dank, dark subways to get from one dank, dark landmark to another, but I would have liked to see some of the points in between. Specifically the IEEE Society office. That's what you get for ratifying 802.11b in the blink of an eye while debating the merits of 802.11n for years, punks!

Graphically Fallout 3 is brilliantly depressing. The Capital Wasteland is both visually and physically a harsh environment, filled with radioactive hazards, crumbled ruins, mutated creatures and survivors that are both hostile and friendly. With Bethesda behind the works, many people were concerned that this game would be just like Oblivion, but with guns. However Fallout 3 has a completely different feel to the Elderscrolls titles. For starters the Capital Wasteland is much smaller than what was presented to us in Oblivion. This isn't a bad thing however, as the area is packed full of decayed towns and eerie cities. No more trekking for miles trying to find something of interest. The Capital Wasteland is still epic however and Bethesda have captured the tone of the previous Fallout games while giving them a major facelift at the same time. Simply walking around will cause you to stop just to admire the landscape. or to try and spot deadly landmines or raiding parties in the distance.

You, the proverbial role player, will enjoy the varied way you can respond to NPCs and the how you can shape the world through your actions. You might even find a hard to make choice here and there about whether to go with your guts or to go with what you know is right. Above all, it's about discovery, and discovery is what Bethesda does best.

Ironically, discovery is also a cause of hurt in the world of Fallout 3. The game is perfectly fine with the player choosing the wild dialog options, but as soon as things get back to the real world, it doesn't want you to go off track. Once a script ends, it ends, and the game doesn't want you running it anymore. This is perhaps the biggest difference between Fallout 3 and its predecessors. The original Fallout begged you to break it. It begged you to get caught at level 2 by the Super Mutants, and attempt to kill Killian with Tycho at your side. Fallout 3 gives you choice, but outside of those choices it can get fuzzy. You attack someone through insulting dialog instead of starting the fight by running up and clobbering them with your baseball bat. There are many things to discover around the volcano, just don't jump in it, or go to that area labeled (Caution: Native Cannibals).

The Fallout games aren't really difficult. Least of all hardcore. However, they do demand a minimum amount of logic and thought from the player. Compared to Mass Effect or Oblivion, they don't push you towards the end. You need the determination and a minimum degree of inventive thought to make your way up in the world, and towards your own objectives.

This is perhaps Fallout 3's biggest failure: it's not nearly complex or cerebral enough for the role in role-playing game to really shine.

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